The Crusher

[Wave Runner]

For those of us old enough to remember the early days of the AWA in Minneapolis, a big icon passed away over the weekend. The Crusher passed away Saturday after being ill for awhile. He was unique to say the least. Do a search on the Star Tribune site for the story.

[IFallsRon]

He came to the Falls once when I was a kid along with the name rasslers of those days like Harley Race and Larry the Axe. Don't know how he made it all those years with "a thousand stitches in my head."

[katoguy]

Da Crusher and his bollo punching and beer drinking. Good ol' days.

My favorite was Jake the Milkman. Did he ever win a match?

[echotrail]

Saturday nights, 6 pm was always reserved for "All Star Wrestling" hosted by Marty O'Neal. The Crusher would growl and call everyone a "Turkey neck"! Didn't get any better for a kid.

[luckyc]

Remember him well, anybody remember Tiny Mills and Krusher Kowalski (who owned a bar in Nordeast Mpls) I learned at a young age to quit making any noise when wreslin was on the tube.

[Northlander]

Man those were the days.

[The Grebe]

How about the on going beat down that Kenny "Sod Buster" Jay would get week in and week out...I wonder how much he got paid for that skit?

I wonder if The Crushers supposed brother, Dick The Bruiser, is still kicking?

[Wave Runner]

The Crusher used to come out for his interviews with Wally Karbo carrying a Nick Bockwinkel puppet that he would abuse during the interview.

Does anybody remember the fact that Rookie of today's Garage Logic used to call matches for the AWA...

[Ray Esboldt]

If wrestling were only what it used to be...

One of the finest moments of my life occurred when I was just 12 years old. The family took a trip to Las Vegas and on the plane were the superstars of AWA. Unfortunately, the Crusher was not a member of this brigade, but the likes of Mad Dog Vachon, Baron von Rashke, Nick Bockwinkel, Jerry Blackwell, and Bobby Heenan were among the 2 dozen grapplers on board the plane. I even got to shake the hand of the immortal Hulk Hogan in the airport.

I miss the days of AWA and the likes of the Crusher.

[Papa Grump]

Ah the good old days, went to many of a show at the Civic Center in the early to mid 80's. Rassling was fun to watch back then, 11:00 on Sunday mornings after church service watching the "ham and eggers" get the stuffing beat out of them. Good, clean fun, unlike the garbage that is on today.

[Mike89]

Don't forget the keg on the shoulder and the cigar!!!! He was cool!! The kids today just are missing out!!

[Dan Thiem]

I seem to have a hard time remembering what "rasslers" were in what orginaztion at what time. Was Rock and Roll Buck Zumoff (probably spelled wrong), George the Animal Steele, ( the turn buckle eater) in the AWA?

A buddy from work is neighbors with The Clawmeister. He said he don't like to talk about those days very much. I saw him once drving down hwy.52. I gave him the claw gesture and he gave it back! With the goofy look on his face. Priceless! I think he was a proffessor or something like that. Only rassled a few months out of the year.

Was T.V. wrestling mostly a Minnesota thing back then?

[Gissert]

I can clearly remember going to Saturday evening mass, and getting home. We would go straight to the tube and put on All Star Wrestling. Wahoo McDaniels was my hero, and the Crusher was a close second.

I remember getting really upset when Billy Graham Superstar smashed the big painting of an Indian Chief over McDaniels head.

RIP, Crusher.

[chaffmj]

I lived down the block on Randolph Ave from Marty O'Neil. We use to see him at the store quite a bit which made it all seem so real. My favorite Crusher interview was when he would come out a six pack a beer and start smashing them in to his forehead telling Marty how he was going to destroy the Dolly Sisters (Nick Bockwinkle and Bobby Heenan before he became the Bobby the Brain).

[Kab Dreamin]

I grew up on the farm in central Illinois and we got the rerun of AWA wrestling on Sunday at noon, if I remember correctly. We would be out working in the fields during harvest season and at 11:45 on Sundays my great-grandfather would get off the tractor, get into his old Ford and drive home to watch wrestling. You could set the clock by him. The crusher was his favorite and all of us great-grandkids were, of course, "a bunch of turkey necks" when we misbehaved. My brother and I were avid fans and would always root for ol' George "Scrap Iron" Kadasky and Kenny "the Sodbuster" Jaye (we were suckers for the underdogs). We hated Baron Von Rashke and Horst Hochsteddter but constantly were putting "the Claw" on each other to the point where my mother was about to kill us. We never could figure out the "Figure Four Leg Lock".

Today, you couldn't get me to watch any of the garbage that passes for wrestling.

[The Grebe]

Gissert....I met Wahoo McDaniels once out at Holiday Village in Plymouth. He was buying some ice fishing stuff.

I looked at the guy, a thick set fellow and asked him if he was Wahoo McDaniels and he said yes and we shook hands. He had a huge cut in his beak, looked like it could have used about 6-8 stitches. I said, "I always thought you were bigger?" He looked at me in kind of a sad way and says, "I'm big?" Big yes, but tall, no...I'm lucky he did'nt pin my ears back!

[The Grebe]

Do you remember a rassler by the name of Hardboiled Haggerty?

[upnorth]

How about Dr. X or Cowboy Bill Watts. Man does that date me

[Bobby Bass]

Da Crusher.....A simpler time, when all ya needed was a keg of beer, a good cigar and some pencil neck geeks!! Funny how many guys will confess to have seen him rasssle.. I went to only one match and that was to see Andre the Giant 30 years later I still remember it. I'll tip a beer for the da crusher...

[lawdog]

Man this thread is bringing back some memories! Vern Gagne, Ray the Crippler Stevenson, Pat Patterson, Da Crusher, etc. etc. GREAT TIMES! I remember Mean Gene Okerland working AWA before he went big time with the WWF too. Ha this is funny.

RIP Crusher!!

[Gissert]

Who was the dude that used to file his teeth? Wild man of the Pampas or something like that?

I went to one match in the early 80's on Thanksgiving day in the St. Paul Civic Center. Nick Bockwinkle was wrestling the Shiek for the title. The whole crowd had a chant going that was basically telling Shiek to commit a reproductive act with himself, LOL.

[erikwells]

"Tip toe through the tulips with teh frito and the masked monkey"! Don't forget the Crusher was also a poet. I had the IT guys where I work change my phone display yesterday to "THE CRUSHER". Come to think of it I don't think the always capable Kenny Sodbuster Jay ever won a match. I was at the Stearns County fair in about 1976-1977 or so and saw George Scrap Iron Kadasky take Kenny J for a 2 out of three falls match. I know its been said a hundred times but "Ahh the good old days".

Rock and roll buck zumhoff

The iron duke

Jake the milkman

Tony Leone

Shawn special delivery jones

The Mulkey brothers

The man from stone mountain GA Jerry Blackwell

Andre the giant

Rick flair

I miss those guys.

[The Grebe]

Gissert...his stage name was "Pompero Firpo, The Wild Bull Of The Pampas!"

I think he stold that name from Luis Angel Firpo, a South American prize fighter who knocked Jack Dempsey out of the ring, before Dempsey came back and stopped him! None the less, it was his claim to fame.

[Gissert]

That's the guy, LMAO! That guy cracked me up and scared me at the same time.

[chaffmj]

How about Ivan Putzky the Polish Stong man. He got in the ring, put a towel on his head and then a cement building block. Out came a sledge hammer and they swung and broke the cement block while it was still on his head.

I kind of started to lose interest with it all about the time Verne's kid Greg Gagne and Jumping Jim Brunzell came on the scene. The High Cryers as we liked to use to call them.